Tourism plays a huge role in Mongolia – each summer, thousands of foreigners arrive in the country to see the sights, experience the culture and attend the Naadam Festival. Inevitably, there are some problems when foreigners find themselves in difficulty, or in some cases, cause problems themselves!

The English language skills of the typical Mongolian police officer are not outstanding – for this reason, since 2014, college and university students with a good command of the English have been employed to work alongside them. The ‘Tourist Friendly Student-Police Programme 2019’ will continue this summer when the tourist arrivals in Ulaanbaatar begin to surge. Some 40 students with good English skills have been selected from 60 students of universities and institutes and have undergone training in tourist safety and security, city tour basics, historical and cultural sightseeing; they have already started to work as student police and tourist guides.

The 30 students have signed labour contracts with the Ulaanbaatar Police Department. Over the past four years, the activity has been organised by the National Police Agency, the Ulaanbaatar Tourism Department and the Students’ Union of Mongolia. The study shows that thanks to the student police, tourist-related offences decreased by 34.4 percent in 2018.